The present invention relates to litter or bedding material for animals that primarily comprises straw material that has been compressed to briquettes and/or pellets. The terms xe2x80x9cstrawxe2x80x9d and xe2x80x9cstraw materialxe2x80x9d encompass the dry stems and leaves of grain, legumes, oleiferous plants, and other fibrous plants, especially secondary growth material.
The litter for small animals that is described in EP 0 310 016 B1 (=U.S. Pat. No. 4,924,808) comprises at least primarily pressed ground straw, the ground straw material comprising irregular fragments of ground straw briquettes. When this litter for small animals is produced, straw is ground or finely ground and the powdered straw obtained in this manner is compacted by means of pressure into ground straw briquettes that are then broken down into fragments having an irregular exterior surface.
The dust that occurs when the briquettes are being produced is harmful for animals and is sifted out, removed pneumatically, and can then be reintroduced at the compacting or briquetting station.
The following are the essential requirements for litter for animals, regardless of whether the animals are large or small:
(1) Highly absorbent for liquids
(2) High degree of liquid retention over time
(3) Low proportion of dust
(4) Easily disposed of
While the known litter can be considered to satisfy the requirements specifically in items (3) and (4), there are certain drawbacks in terms of requirements (1) and (2), these drawbacks resulting from grinding the straw, in particular finely grinding the straw.
In a method described in GB 2 252 709 A for producing litter from straw for animals, the straw is chopped in a first stage and ground up by means of a hammer mill so that it can pass through, e.g., a 7-10 mm sieve. This material is compressed or pelletized in a second stage, without first removing any dust, in order then to be broken up in a third stage into a relatively narrow range of particle sizes, e.g. 1-10 mm. The granulate material thus obtained is supposed to be largely free of dust in that there are essentially no particles of dust other than the granulate material, while the individual granules can contain dust particles in addition to the chopped fibrous matter.
Known from DE 42 01 410 A is another method for producing litter from straw for animals in which chopped straw is compressed into pellets, dust particles that occur during chopping remaining in the material.
It is an object of the present invention to fabricate a litter produced with a straw base that has high absorbency and enhanced liquid retainability over time compared to known litters.